Yitro

My Musing

What does it mean to turn your life around? To have a life altering or life changing event?
This week's selection of the first midrash in the Tanhuma makes us ask just that. The language is harsh. The orator sets out to establish idolatry as analogous to death, where one who comes to Torah observance is resurrected so to speak.
The midrash explores some other extensions of the idea of conversion and ends up with Yitro as being the model of the true convert.

מדרש תנחומא (ורשא) פרשת יתרו סימן א
(שמות יח:א) "וַיִּשְׁמַע יִתְרוֹ כֹהֵן מִדְיָן חֹתֵן מֹשֶׁה אֵת כָּל אֲשֶׁר עָשָׂה אֱלֹקִים לְמֹשֶׁה וּלְיִשְׂרָאֵל עַמּו,ֹ כִּי הוֹצִיא יְדֹוָד אֶת יִשְׂרָאֵל מִמִּצְרָיִם"

"And Yitro, the priest of Midian, father in law of Moses, heard all that God had done for Moshe and His nation, the Israelites, in that he had taken Israel out of Egypt"
The Midrash comments on this verse from the opening of this week's Torah reading with a verse from Ecclesiastes (Kohelet) which is tken in a larger context by moust medieval commentators but for the midrash, the verse stands a,lone and even each phrase can be seen as independednt. "And then I saw the wicked buried and they came, and from that holy place they walked and

were forgotten in the city, that which they did, this is also vanity"

זה שאמר הכתוב (קהלת ח:י) "וּבְכֵן רָאִיתִי רְשָׁעִים קְבֻרִים וָבָאוּ, וּמִמְּקוֹם קָדוֹשׁ יְהַלֵּכוּ וְיִשְׁתַּכְּחוּ בָעִיר אֲשֶׁר כֵּן עָשׂוּ גַּם זֶה הָבֶל"
וכי יש רשעים קבורים באים ומהלכים?

The midrash asks, can there be wicked people buried and coming and walking?
Rabbi Simon answers that these wicked people are the walking dead, such that they are as if they are dead and buried already in their lifetime. He offers the prooftext from Job, "All the

days of the wicked person he suffers, and the number of his years stored up for the oppressor"

רבי סימון אומר אלו הרשעים שהן מתים וכקבורין בחייהן. שנאמר (איוב טו:כ) "כָּל יְמֵי רָשָׁע הוּא מִתְחוֹלֵל וּמִסְפַּר שָׁנִים נִצְפְּנוּ לֶעָרִיץ"
מה הוא " מִתְחוֹלֵל"? מת חולל.

Rabbi Simon explains the word "mitcholel" as a compound of met and cholel, dead and hollow.
The midrash offers some alternate extrapolations but along the same theme but with a more positive resolution.

דבר אחר: "וּבְכֵן רָאִיתִי רְשָׁעִים קְבֻרִים וָבָאוּ" הכתוב מדבר בגרים שבאים ועושין תשובה.

An alternative application (although syntactically difficult) for those “dead who are buried and came” is converts who repent. The “Holy place they walk” refers to the synagogues and study halls they now turn to.

"וּמִמְּקוֹם קָדוֹשׁ יְהַלֵּכוּ", אלו בתי כנסיות ובתי מדרשות.
דבר אחר:"וּמִמְּקוֹם קָדוֹשׁ יְהַלֵּכוּ", ממקום שישראל נקראו קדושים, שם הם מהלכין.

An alternative application for “from the Holy place they walk” is from the place where Israel was called Holy (Sinai) there is where they walked.
The midrash continues to explicate the verse from Kohelet.

"וְיִשְׁתַּכְּחוּ בָעִיר אֲשֶׁר כֵּן עָשׂוּ גַּם זֶה הָבֶל", 'יִשְׁתַּכְּחו'ּ מעשיהם הרעים.
דבר אחר: 'יִשְׁתַּכְּחו' שהן משתכחין במעשיהם הטובים.

“and were forgotten in the city, that which they did, this is also vanity" refers to the evil deeds they once did and now forget as they have repented and become converts. An alternative application is offered that their good deeds envelop them.

"גַּם זֶה הָבֶל", אין זה הבל שאומות העולם רואין אותן ומתגיירין תחת כנפי השכינה, רואין אותן ואינן מתגיירין גם זה הבל.

The midrash is forced to deal with the end phrase of the verse “this too is vanity” since it seems to negatively comment on the result of the repentance and conversion. The midrash states emphatically that seeing the Israelites and converting is not “hevel”, vanity, but seeing the Israelites at Sinai and not following their lead is vanity.

מי הוא זה שבא ונתגייר והיה גר של אמת זה יתרו שנאמר "וַיִּשְׁמַע יִתְרוֹ"

The midrash concludes with our paradigm for a convert who is a true convert, Yitro, who heard all that God did and came to be with the Israelites.